Being Veg in School

[Guest guest]

My son is about to begin preschool and although he probably will not

be faced with the dilemna at this time I have begun to wonder what

will happen when he goes to school and can not eat the same things as

the other children. I am a firm believer in individuality but at the

same time do not want to make my son a target for children's

cruelty. Any suggestions?

[Guest guest]

You will send his lunch and teach him what he's doing is right. talk about

animals and how we should not desire to eat dead flesh. There are lots of

Seventh Day Adventist schools that are Good schools and serve Vegetarian

lunches

[Guest guest]

Hello,

 

There are two issues here

 

1.) How to prevent your child from wanting to eat the foods that the

other children eat - and

 

2.) How to prevent your child from being subjected to cruelty for his

diet.

 

The first one will either be very easy or very difficult depending on

your reasons for being vegetarian or vegan. If you are doing this

for health reasons it is often very difficult to convince an adult to

care about his or her health, let alone an adult. However, if you

are doing this for ethical reasons, you will be able to show your son

that the food that others are eating is actually a dead animal that

lived a horrible life. As Carol Adams says, you need to " restore the

absent referent. "

 

I was recently listening to an interview with Joann Farb the author

of " Compassionate Souls - Raising the Next Generation to Change the

World " and she said that her daughters know exactly what animal

products are and they won't go near them.

 

The second one may not be as difficult as you think. You may find

that many children are very interested in the fact that your son is

different in this aspect. However, there will always be some

children that will feel the need to be cruel. There is little you

can do about this and I wouldn't obsess about it. However, one thing

that I have noticed is that children will almost always respect the

fact that a child has a different religion. There are several

organized religions that require or encourage a vegetarian diet

(Buddhism, Jainism, Seventh Day Adventists, and Essenes to name a

few). You could always have your son tell his classmates that he is

vegetarian for religious/spiritual reasons, and in almost all cases,

the children will avoid cruel comments.

 

Good Luck,

 

Scott

 

 

, dirtykittie69 wrote:

> My son is about to begin preschool and although he probably will

not

> be faced with the dilemna at this time I have begun to wonder what

> will happen when he goes to school and can not eat the same things

as

> the other children. I am a firm believer in individuality but at

the

> same time do not want to make my son a target for children's

> cruelty. Any suggestions?